OK, so the last time we told you that Gingerbread on the Nexus One was imminent, Google didn’t deliver. Until we hear it straight from the Android’s mouth, there’s always the chance for these rumors to fizzle; people misinterpret things, timelines shift, and priorities change. This time feels a little more solid, though, as word is supposedly leaking out of the Mobile World Congress that Google’s first smartphone will finally be getting an Android 2.3 update by this time next week.

MobileCrunch caught wind of a casual mention of the update at the MWC, and sought to try and nail it down a bit more before running with it. After mentioning its find to anyone who would presumably have knowledge of an impending update, a collection of off-the-record confirmations has started to become what sounds like a real possibility. After all, if there’s anywhere outside Mountain View that you’d expect those in the know at Google to be spending their time this week, it’d be Barcelona.

Getting Gingerbread on the Nexus One could be the opening-of-the-floodgates we need to start seeing Android 2.3 ported to other handsets. Considering that pretty big changes are expected for the next Android, integrating parts of Honeycomb, Gingerbread may be the last major update coming to some of the older, aging smartphone hardware that’s out there.